Why are Oreck's so rubbish?

[parwaz786]

Well not rubbish, but not as powerful as Hoovers or Kirbies? I mean the Hoover Turbopowers have like the same sized fan and both have powerful motors, so why is it that the Hoover is much better? I understand Kirby is miles and miles better cos of the motor and fan being large etc

 

[vacuumlover]

Well a hoover turbopower says it all lol

 

[JDrums0789]

Orecks

I wouldnt call them rubbish. They are great performers in certain situations.

Example: Glued down commercial carpeting.
A Kirby has so much suction that it clamps down hard, cutting off airflow and become very hard to push. Models with tech drive do better, but you can hear the transmission straining.
An Oreck has a very dense, high speed brush roll which does a much better job at flicking up dirt into the airflow. Even with low suction, it maintains good airflow with the large dirt bag. That huge dirt capacity is also great for commercial work. Their lightweight is also nice when you have to lug them all over a large commercial building or up stairs. They are also quite durable, which puts it ahead of alot of modern Hoovers.

Now I wont argue that they are rubbish on high pile plush and frizze. The company even knew this, hence the XL21 redesign, vast improvement on thicker carpets. I have a Pilot and its performance is hard to knock. No, its not a Kirby, but its not trying to be. Apples and oranges.
But I wouldnt bash it too hard. Its been around a long time and has been highly successful. Its design has been copied many times as well. That in itself should show that it has many good qualities.

Just try to be more open minded before calling something rubbish.

Believe it or not, but Orecks are some of my least favorite vacuum cleaners!

 

[cb123]

Perhaps, absurdities, balderdash twaddle, tripe garbage, but I would never call an Oreck rubbish, well, just maybe.

 

[turbo500]

The suction on the Oreck is pretty poor. The fan is MUCH smaller than on a lot of other dirty fan cleaners and not very well made either, so it didn't generate much airflow to begin with. Couple that with the narrow air path from the cleanerhead to the bag AND the cheap, screaming motor used in a lot of Orecks, it doesn't make for a fantastic vacuum.


 


However, they have a pretty impressive brushroll in them which does a lot of the work, so they are really good for commercial, low pile carpets.

 

[turbo500]

Its design has been copied many times as well.

It's so funny that you should say that, because Oreck wasn't an original design to begin with. David Oreck just bought an unwanted patent from Whirlpool and started manufacturing it. We had Oreck uprights in the early 70's branded "McDonald Electric", which was the original version of that design. It wasn't a big seller and was discontinued after a short run, which is when David O picked up the patent.


 


Always amuses me when he claims to be the "inventer of the Oreck vacuum". Such a big fat lie.

 

[hvrvaclvr]

Their fans are very small and brittle. They clog up and break very quickly.

 

[sebo_fan]

The main difference between Hoover, Kirby and Oreck is that Oreck uprights are lightweight and use a soft bag much like the Hoover Junior "proper" design, even including the last U1104.

The wattage is also fairly low. Around 350 watts or 400 watts AND no beater bars or agitators on the brush roll unlike Hoover. Everything on the Oreck design is made to be lightweight, which is why very little sound insulation is built in, making the motors very noisy. The only helpful additions to the design in my experience is the helping hand handle, a good brush roll and the long cord.

A lot of owners over the years have had replacement fans, to the point that most buy the metal fans from the red commercial model, or eventually seek out the red commercial upright version because of the metal fan. Not as fragile then when picking up harder dust.

I know of plenty elderly people that refuse to give up their Orecks. Clearly there is still a market to have an "upright only" design that the Hoover Junior design left behind. The Vax VCU02 I have is very much like an Oreck but the motor inside has so much better protection. I don't mind the noise from the Vax when it picks up dirt reasonably well.

 

[loganvac]

I have medium pile carpeting and I still use my Oreck on it, but that's only because it picks up the pet hair so well from my boxer on the surface of the carpet.

 

[jade_angel]

Orecks have their place - heck, I'd probably have one for quick pickups, if not for one thing. That one thing is the Riccar Supralite/Simplicity Freedom, which seems to do everything Orecks do, but better. That said, I haven't tried one on glued-down commercial carpeting. On medium-pile household carpets, though, the Freedom does a bang-up job, even with the bottom-of-the-line wooden brushroll.

 

[hvrvaclvr]

My girlfriend uses an Oreck to clean the carpet on her front porch. I always have to unclog the fan, then again she's picking up leaves and stuff like that. I tell her all the time that if she won't use a shop vac to use her Dyson DC24 out there. But she refuses to.

I did use it at my house after I fixed it the one time and it does groom the carpet very well, and it picks up the dog and cat hair in one pass, but to me it doesn't seem like it deep cleans very well.

 

[sebo_fan]

Like Kirby though, the American Orecks are too over priced. For the same cost of an Oreck in the UK brand new and direct from Oreck, you may as well buy a Miele S7 or SEBO upright. For the tech that's being offered, the Oreck products should be far cheaper to buy.


In the U.S the Magnesium model is $399 or $599 for the SP edition which is just about £272 or £408 currency wise.

Yet the UK market Magnesium model is £299. For a rather updated but simple non-hose lightweight upright only, that's a steep price.

No wonder buyers flock to auction sites. Cost prices for little used Orecks are mega cheap, most than 50% less.

 

[turbo500]

Not to mention, Nar, Oreck no longer include the handheld cannister vacuum and upright as a package, so there is NO above floor cleaning on the models you've posted above.

 

[parwaz786]

Kl Thanks guys

 

[suckolux]

Orecks and Kirbys around here CL cheap!

 

[parwaz786]

Jason, just curious but were you Jasongreen98 on YouTube? You also got a DC25 Animal new for youer birthday or somethng and a DC14 All floors for your birthday?

 

[alexhoovers94]

Sebofan, the 80s style Hoover Juniors are appalling.

 

[human]

My girlfriend used to have an Oreck until she borrowed my Kirby Heritage Turbo HD1. The next thing I knew, the Oreck was nowhere to be found. She said she pitched it in the dumpster. Considering how it performed—or rather didn't perform—compared to the Kirby, I can't much blame her. Of course, it'll now be that much harder for me to ever get that Kirby back.

 

[sebo_fan]

In what context Alex? They were best buys from Which magazine. And they seem to last a lot longer than a lot of TP series vacs.

 

[alexhoovers94]

In terms of quality the Turbopowers were Awful but in terms of cleaning the Turbopowers cleaned far better and the hose suction was far stronger than that of an 80s junior that said the 80s Juniors were budget.


 


Don't let me confuse you between the 70's Juniors and the 80s Juniors, The 70s's Juniors have superior agitation, better suction, purred across the carpet and had a better tool set up with stronger hose suction than that of an 80's Junior. Everything about the 80's Juniors are just shocking, they are very average performers and were very cheap and tacky.

 

[tolivac]

Oreck fans-the FANCASES in these tend to break just as much or more so then the fans do.And they erode quickly from sand.To put it this way the Oreck vacuum is really a high priced "broom" vacuum!Good for quick clean-ups!The Orecks had their real place in Hotel-motel cleaning.The hotel-motel janitor could clean the room quickly between guests with an Oreck-and since the rooms were always lo pile carpet-the Orecks did fine for that.

 

[parwaz786]

Lol, I agree Tolivac, I would rather get a Dyson DC59 which cleans better and can do a lot more things with a 2 year guarantee!

 

[vintagevaclover]

They're good for what they are

Which is basically a powerhead with a bag on it . They have no height adjustment and they basically just wipe the surface of the carpet, they get the job done and they're good for what they are. They dont have attachments and they wont give you a true deep clean. Very light and good for quick pickups tho. The vintage ones are pretty cool too!

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

My simple mind looks at an Oreck as an incredibly over priced "vacuum" cleaner. Is it a carpet sweeper with a large bag? It generates little suction to do any deep cleaning and obviously no above floor cleaning. This is fine but it really doesn't justify its price. They should be at least a 3rd of what they actually are

 

[sebo_fan]

The U1104 and U1036 carries the same format as the Powerplus vacuums, Alex. Very thinly disguised similar metal based models with a plastic hood on top. Exterior touch parts were replaced with plastic as it was cheaper and also showed current owners updated looks. Purely cosmetic in some cases.

Our family had more metal 1970's Juniors when I was much younger. However, we always kept a separate cylinder vac nearby. Hose set ups on the Junior in general were only supplied to make money for Hoover, rather than taking the place of a much more powerful canister unit - made all the more obvious with the later plastic bodied U1104 series.

Despite what you say, the U1036 & U1104s are forever popping up on EBay. They do appear to last a long time and that's original ones, NOT refurbs.

I have not mentioned anything about uprights having hoses or tools. The Oreck uprights are testament to that. They have never been made with tools or hoses, and as Chris rightly notes, the new models don't come with the "free" canister any more.

Other members have already noted how basic the Oreck is. There's still a market for upright only vacs without hoses or tools, but rather a small and diminishing market.

Frankly I'm surprised Dirt Devil don't sell the Broomy upright any more. I know many would buy them in the UK if they were made available.

 

[blackheart]

ya know...

I actually kinda like orecks, they are very light and easy to use, and i think they often perform better than what people give them credit for. Especially the "newer" style such as the 21, gold, etc. While they cannot compare to a direct air or tandem air machine with larger fans, i do feel they can at times match or out perform bypass machines.

To compare the performance of the vacuums i have i bought hot pink sand, distributed an amount on a rug, worked the sand in, and then counted the number of strokes it took to remove all visible sand. *note 1 stroke = 1 pass forward + backward* The Xl-21 took 3, the XL ultra i no longer have had mixed results so i averaged it's score and gave it a 4, the xl-21 scored better than the Miele S7, Miele Silver moon, and Rainbow E-2 (black) all of which scored a 4. the 21 matched the score of the lindhaus Healthcare Pro, Filter Magic w/Vibragroomer III, Patriot w/ lindhaus PB-14, and Royal power team.

 

[human]

I never did any scientific comparisons with my girlfriend's Oreck, which is now rotting in a landfill somewhere, and my Kirby Heritage, but I did notice an immediate and dramatic difference between the two when vacuuming up after she gave me a haircut. The Oreck would simply never pick up all of the hair off the carpet—80-90 percent maybe, but never all of it. No matter how many times I went over an area, it could never get it all. The Kirby, on the other hand, got it all in a couple of passes. That's why the Oreck an all-expense-paid trip to the dumpster.

 

[sebo_fan]

mmm the same could be said for those Swivel Sweepers. I had two of them. Never again. Great at movement but battery packs kept failing and even under the so called warranty I got with it, even the batteries the shopping company sent me never seemed to keep their charge.

If I had to choose between an Oreck and a Swivel Sweeper, I think I would go with an Oreck. My parents owned one and passed it down to me in later years. I know what to expect with Oreck - better pick up for starters that stays in the bag and doesn't get rolled around.

 

[parwaz786]

I had a red swivel sweeper G2 when they came out. Lasted like 7 or 8 months. The batter pack wasn't really an issue for me, but I found that the brushbar getting wrapped in hair makes it useless, Also the plastic guard got cracked. The back saving plastic elbow joint snapped once, we got a replacement one new. Same one broke again! Other than these, I like the swivel sweeper. Would love another one, I have been rough on it tho.